WebProNews

This latest AdWords initiative has to be a 20 percent project at Google. We picture some techie cleaning out a closet at home, finding a card from a hostess bar in Osaka stuck under a CueCat in a box, and being suddenly struck by a bowling ball falling from an unbalanced shelf.

Tra-la-la! Wait, that's Captain Underpants. Eureka! That's more appropriate for California.

We'll give credit to Joel On Software for making the CueCat connection too. Yes, play spot the oldies, kids, it's easy and fun!

Google intends to drop square barcodes onto print ads. With a camera phone and the right software, a person can scan the ad, and the phone's onboard web browser will bring up additional information related to it.

"2D barcodes have been common in Japan for a number of years," Google said in its barcode help page. "In fact, Japanese business cards often feature barcodes containing contact information."

The first ads containing these barcodes appeared in newspapers, and connected to jewelry retailer Blue Nile. Google promoted these, and other barcode ads, as a way to quickly deliver more information about an advertiser to a consumer.

It's far too soon to guess at how successful barcoding may be, for Google or anyone else opting to use the technology. We will make one guess: Google's Android mobile software will include a barcode reader when it launches.